Eleven miniature bronze bells

Description:

Lorestāni, Iron Age II, c. 700 B.C.E.

Eleven miniature bronze bells of Lorestāni origin, ranging from 2.5 and 3.6 cm. in height and 1.5 to 2.6 in diameter, topped by finials most likely representing horses, one of those intact (616.6) perhaps depicting a rooster (if not 616.1 and 3 as well, whose front ends do not survive). Each of the bells resemble each other greatly when discounting size, though bells 616.2, 3, 6, 7, and 11 still seem to have retained their respective clappers in varying severities of oxidation (616.4 could perhaps be included in this group, though the oxidation where its clapper normally would be is of such a bizarre coloration and shape that it is difficult to tell). Many of the bells are marred by notches at their hems, though the holes present in 616.5, 9, and 10 (three, two, and one respectively) seem to be deliberately made, perhaps to somehow increase their clappers’ audibility. All of the bells suffer from severe “bronze disease,” though pieces of a triangular or herringbone pattern appear at the hem of 616.11. The holes through the finials most likely were made for stringing the bells together for unknown decorative purposes.